Other Views: A-Rod follows Lance Armstrong

Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in the history of baseball, wants the public to believe that he is a victim - the innocent target of a witch hunt by Major League Baseball. In the best tradition of doper-cyclist Lance Armstrong, he filed suit Monday to prove it.

It's going to be a tough sell.

To believe A-Rod, you need to don the rosiest of rose-colored glasses. You have to believe:

? That a player with a 10-year, $275 million contract, who can afford the world's best medical care, sought "nutrition" advice from Tony Bosch, a fake doctor at a Florida strip mall.

? That more than 550 text messages between Bosch and Rodriguez's BlackBerry were really about "food" and not a code, as Bosch testified, to cover talk of banned substances - including one text telling Bosch to use hotel service elevators for a meeting because there are "tons of eyes."

? That a dozen other Bosch clients - players who agreed to lengthy suspensions last summer - were all taking banned substances, but A-Rod was just talking about eating.

? And that Rodriguez is telling the truth now, after admitting when he got caught in 2009 that, well, actually, he had taken performance enhancing drugs for three years.

"I was young. I was stupid. I was naive," A-Rod said back then. Now the excuse is that he is being railroaded. So says his complaint against Major League Baseball and his own players' union.

Young, stupid and naive was a better defense than this latest one.

Rodriguez, who has more home runs than any other active player, has now made history of another sort as the recipient of the longest suspension ever for a doping violation (211 games, reduced last week by an arbitrator to a season-long 162).

Add in the other players caught up in the scandal, and it's clear that baseball's steroid era isn't over. But with a tough investigation and tough penalties, the sport appears finally to be turning the corner.

This time, the case wasn't built on a failed drug test. Baseball cleaned house the hard way. It aggressively investigated players linked to Bosch's clinic. The pursuit wasn't pretty. In Rodriguez's case, MLB paid $125,000 in cash for documents from one sleazy character and doled out huge sums for lawyers and bodyguards for its star witness, Bosch.

This scorched-earth approach shouldn't become standard practice, but neither can baseball ignore cheating just because the evidence doesn't come from a blood test or a Boy Scout. The cheaters always seem to be steps ahead of the testing.

Another difference this time: The players' union quickly signaled that it would not go to the mat for guilty players. Clean players are making clear they'll no longer tolerate feeling as if they have to cheat to compete.

One way to reinforce the message is to void long-term contracts of players caught juicing. Another is for team owners to shun cheaters. That's not happening.

Last fall, the St. Louis Cardinals signed Jhonny Peralta, fresh from a 50-game suspension for doping, to a $53 million, four-year contract. In 2012, Toronto signed Melky Cabrera, also just off a 50-game suspension, to a $16 million, two-year deal. In 2013, Cabrera was hurt for much of the season and batted .279, far off his All-Star performance on testosterone. Maybe similar busts will chill the cheater market.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, appears headed not for Cooperstown but for a luxurious life on the scrap heap. Maybe he and Armstrong can be roommates.

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Other Views: A-Rod follows Lance Armstrong

Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in the history of baseball, wants the public to believe that he is a victim ? the innocent target of a witch hunt by Major League Baseball.

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